Digital Book Sales Soar

What’s the Latest Development?

More evidence of the rise of digital publishing. New figures from the U.K. show that in 2010 sales of e-books and audio book downloads there in the “general titles” category (which includes novels and consumer titles), soared from £4m ($6.6m) to £16m ($26.4m). And the academic and professional book category still dominates overall digital sales, reaching £180m ($297m) last year. The BBC says that the increased digital sales suggests devices such as Amazon’s Kindle and the Sony Reader are increasingly making an impact.

What’s the Big Idea?

Not so surprising is the fact that digital book sales are soaring, but it is interesting that it’s now also happening in the ‘general’ genre. In fact, as Richard Mollet, chief executive of the Publishers Association, says “Digital publishing is growing at an impressive rate in whichever part of the sector you choose to look.”